As far as possible the department encourages honours students to write their research essay in a field that has special interest to them. At the same time the topic has to be viable, in terms of the availability of research material and the scope of the subject. Most students write their essays on South African topics because of the excellent holding in the Library. But there are also good resources in African and British history.

Members of staff have expertise in a number of different areas:

Professor Maylam - late nineteenth century British imperialism; urban history; racism and apartheid; extra-parliamentary opposition in twentieth century South Africa; historiography.

Professor Cobbing - global crisis; the African crisis.

Professor Baines - history of the eastern Cape, especially Port Elizabeth; SA urban history and culture; South African popular music; the 'Border War'; the apocalyptic imagination.

Ms Tsampiras - slavery (past and present); gender and violence; health, disease and society (particularly gender and HIV); global social justice.

Dr Kirkaldy - missionaries; precolonial South Africa; environmental history.

Dr Msindo - Zimbabwean history.

Students are not necessarily restricted to these areas. We can guide you in other topics that might interest you.

Last Modified: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 15:17:36 SAST